


Ember

by 191131415926



Category: Gacha World (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Not Beta Read, Translation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23618239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/191131415926/pseuds/191131415926
Summary: “It's been thirteen years. Glad you are still here. ”
Relationships: DJ Clover/DJ X
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Ember

**Author's Note:**

> Translation of an old work to save my gen/smut ratio on this site , originally posted on Lofter, sorry for the bad grammar in advance.

Vinyl is already sitting on the edge of hospital bed when Clover entered the ward,Clear, pale golden sunlight of early winter afternoon shone though the window, refracted by the infusion bottle, then falling on the book Xavier is reading. Both of them are silent, couldn't really figure out what to say. Almost like one of the many late night visits during Vinyl's comatose, only with the role swapped. Vinyl is the first one to notice Clover, he nodded her a greeting and stood up. “Goodbye, Vinyl.”X broke the silence. Vinyl replied with a simple'Hmm.', then turn around and left.

Clover removed the emply glass from the night stand, setting the documents X needed on it. After spending nearly a decade with her mixgear, Clover is sure that she could directly open a portal on the nightstand, then simply toss the stack of paper to its destination while herself is thirty kilometers away, even without worrying about messing them up. Or she could just follow the doctor's advice and decline Xavier's attempt of work. But she still subconsciously chose the inefficient action she usually despised. Clover felt slightly uneasy upon realizing that. Xavier thanked her, slender fingers reaching for the document, his hand is cold, too frigid for a fire unit.

Clover remembers the plastic surgery he mentioned once, temporarily curious about if Xavier's hand is still intact, or maybe there's no flesh under the skin anymore, only mechanical skeletons remains, like those on his head. She found her boss chewing on a pen, electronical eyes focusing on the unfitting paper documents——should be extinct twenty years ago. Surrendered to his age already? The thought popped out from the back of her mind. The music playing from the speaker sounds like something from last century, took her three minutes to identify its source, the first record of DJ Phantom, released 30 years ago. Nostalgia, isn't it? She looked up, the dusk is pouring into the window, bright as molten metal, igniting Xavier's red hair into embers, yet left his skin sickly pale. Clover's breath was shortly taken away, a suffocating blunt pain followed.

“Clo?”Sheer confusion.

“Well……if you don't need any more help……I suppose I have to leave.”Hesitation, struggling to keep her tone calm.

“Bye, Clo.”Calmness.

“……Take care, Xavier.”Her voice slightly wavering.

“No promises.”Almost amused, reason unclear.

Clover gets up, almost rushed out of the ward.

The sky gradually cooled down to a blue-gray haze, after several minutes it would become the same shade of black as the exterior of surrounding buildings. Street lights is long gone in Vinyl City, neon tubes embedded in the edges of buildings and roads gradually lightened up, floating outline of light cyan extended out of her view. Aesthetic to a new comer, but once get used to the scene, no one can ignore its sheer coldness, a gigantic aquarium, she thinks, staring at the smooth dark night sky, slightly missing the Christmas fireworks.

The usual peaceful days returns after the corruption incident, the sound of bones crushing under tons of scrapped metals now felt distant. Vinyl City was yet to be repaired, and their schedule is packed with various works, but she was somehow unsure about what to do. X locked himself in the lab for an entire month and a half after Eve's disappearance. “Never mind, I'm fine.”Behind the door he said, voice hoarse like a broken gramophone. The door opened when Clover was seriously considering breaking in, X stuck his head out, waving a new red mixgear. “Hey Clo, wanna play the Santa next week?”Carefree tone, just as usual, what the hell is going on in his head anyway? Clover sighed, but nodded, just in case he accidentally blow himself up again.

On that Christmas Eve, they saw angel befall. Eve, with her new golden wings, gradually falling to them along with snowflakes. X set the argument about the design of thrusters on his boots aside, grabbed Clover's wrist and directly charged to Eve. She glared him after reflexive exclamation, activated her mixgear to adjust their gravity, the golden angel widened her eyes, rushed to Xavier for an embrace. “Merry Christmas,Papa!”She giggled like any normal child with X gently rubbing her hair. The three stay floated at 200 meters above, overlooked the fireworks below, metal salts bursting into colourful particles among the mirror plane of the buildings, reflected into a virtual galaxy. Clover and Xavier dropped the gifts, multicolored paper boxes sunk into the fireworks, disappearing from their sight. Almost feel like they are a family, Clover unconsciously smiled.

Xavier unsurprisingly twisted his ankle on the way home, the 'totally fine' thurster, aka 6cm high heels mercilessly tripped him over, just as her expectation. Clover slided the medical kit she prepared in advance over. He may be dead a few times if acting like that in the past. She glanced at Xavier, he made himself a cliche sci-fi villian from overly long bang and mechanical parts, then learned to half-genuinely sneer, his sickly pale skin only added to the horrifing image of him laughing at the center of the explosion. But the notorious bomber of Vinyl city is now sitting on the floor, carefully bandaging his ankle, he looks unnaturally slender without those sharp metal shouder pads, red hair hanging down to his bent knee, he seems concentrated and hollow, almost haggard. Clover reached out, fingers tentatively tracing on his shoulder. “Go to sleep, Clover, what time do you think it is?” His voice sounds startled, unconsciously showing his sharp fang. See you then, Clover shifted her expression to usual work mode, disappearing at the corner of the stairs before Xavier respond. 

Xavier returned to the lab next morning, greeting Clover behind piles of flasks and beakers, she noticed the cup of coffee placed beside the computer is already cold, but not feeling like to ask. Xavier's former research is sheer curiosity at first, then a desperate struggle under the shadow of corruption. The former worn away in witnessing Eve's endless suffering, the latter is now slain by the outsider. The revenge he seeks also self-destructed in the chaos. But his devotion to mixgear research only deepens after everything became meaningless. Clover cannot understand, but she began used to set an extra alarm for 2 A.M, in order to drag a Xavier sleeping on the desk back to his room.

They still take the Santa role every Christmas, decorating the night sky with fireworks and gift boxes. They witnessed music gradually recover after ultimate record's destruction. The artificial angel ascended to a true deity, no trace of her former self could be seen any more. Phantom swinging about on the Christmas tree, the symphony playing in the background switched into piano solo, People reaching for the gift, smiling exactly like last year they did. At the fourth Christmas Clover saw the end of a girl's life. Her platinum hair dancing in the wind, falling through the sea of sparkles and snowflakes like a star sniped down. She crushed to the ground before Clover was able to react, a peaceful smile on her face, almost seems satisfied. A crowd gathered around her when the ambulance arrived, but no one knows her identity or intention. 

If I can decide the day to die, I would probably choose Christmas Eve too.

Xavier's voice is barely louder than a murmur. Clover turned her gaze away, pretending she neither heard his questionable words, nor noticed his expression, briefly twisted in routine headache. After the seventh year she began dragging X to the hospital for medical examination. Two months after the ninth Christmas she was awakened by a loud thump, she rushed to the lab, shoes forgotten in the hallway,only found white painkiller pills scattering in spilled reagent, thousands of bubbles corroding Xavier's lab coat. Dazzling white light of the fluorescent lamp depriving the texture of his skin, making him the same inorganic object as the tables and beakers surrounding. But his scarlet hair appeared black in her shrinking pupil, dark as dried blood.

Clover read all the testing results and scan-images, all showing the same result, that ancient explosion irreversibly damaged Xavier's circulatory and nervous systems, his organ necrosis progress is already unstoppable. Sure enough. X glanced at the reports, then unconcernedly scoffed. Saw it coming a decade ago. Guess what, Clo? I'm burning out. X is laughing now, pointing at his electronical eye.

Clover hit his face with a pillow.

Xavier declared that explosion, burning, aging or organ failure are all just oxidation reactions , so most people would be burnt to their death, shrinking into a pile of crumbling mess, 70% of their original size. He said that at least he avoided the worst state of death at the first few days in hospital, then did everything possible to drive all visitors away. He got tired of playing the villian two weeks later, expressions and actions return to utter accuracy, dull and irrefutability the way mechanical devices does. Clover doubt Xavier is really burning out like his former joke, as exhaustion is one of the typical symptoms of hypoxia.

It's evening when Clover visited the ward again, Xavier was silently standing in trance, finally noticed her after a long time. Please do me a favor, he half turned to her, electronic eye no longer functioning, the first firework of that night exploded in the sky, casting faint glitter into its complete darkness. 

Three minutes later they are standing in the centual park of Vinyl city. Still think our old spot is better, Xavier looked up. You would freeze to an ice cube, there's no place for you to stand on anyway. Clover rolled her eyes, by the way helping an serious patient to escape the hospital didn't seem like a wise decision. Prehaps. The oversized hospital gown keeps slipping down, Xavier slightly shivered, wrapping himself tight with the coat he grabbed beforehand. 

They begin to head toward the center of the piazza, the crowd surrounding them gradually become denser, Clover natually reaching out to hold Xavier's hand. The young deity flying past them, giving everyone blessings. X reached out for the falling feathers, they shattered into golden fragments when touching his palm. Eve didn't stop for them——higher existences had to receive excessive informations, the few memories she had as a test project were overlapped long ago. Xavier only shrugged when he found out Eve can't recognize him. Those memories are not that pleasant anyway, better left in oblivion. Clover activated her mixgear after the crowd scattered, ready for the return. X pressed her hand down, asking to stay for a little longer. Clover frowned, but didn't argue back, following him to sit on the stairs surrounding the piazza, waiting for the firework show to end. 

“Sorry,Clover.”Xavier's bang, heavy with melted snow, falling to the side, revealing his single eye, iris dimly glittering like embers, his expression is too calm, almost sorrowful. Xavier asked her if she remembered the days when they were fighting corruption, an attempt to ease current awkwardness, Clover nodded. We are basically doing the same thing as we did before. Setting explosions and dropping things from above. He faintly smiled, but everyone look happier now. He closed his eyes, leaning on Clover's shoulder, hard metal pieces sinking into her skin, but Clover stayed still. Xavier kept on recalling, from the anonymous chocolate he received on Valentine's Day to the changing music trend of Vinyl club, then the two blind cats they adopted many years ago, one black and the other white. X mentioned an old acquaintance, no wonder he always looks like that, everyone would become similar in front of Death. At the last he cracked a grin she was so familiar with, Clover, you really were short as hell when I meet you for the first time. Clover isn't annoyed like she did before, she tilted her head, Xavier awkwardly running his fingers through her soft raven hair. 

“It's been thirteen years. Glad you are still here. ”

The firework has disappeared long ago, Vinyl city concreting back to a cyan aquarium. Xavier closed his eyes, body slowly sinking to the ground. Clover lifted him up, found him light as a dying flame.

The hospital called her at the end of that year, The patient named Xavier has passed away, please go to the hospital as soon as possible to handle the following matters. She dropped the phone and curled up in place. Unmoving from three in the afternoon to the sunset. She saw DJ X in a burning debris, reaching out to the young girl stubbornly clutching on a green mixgear. After thirteen years, she felt helpless again. 

“Let's fill the coffin with explosives, and kidnap everyone we hate to the funeral! Then BOOM!”

“……”

“How about a self-destruct mechanism? Activated right after brain death!”

“……Please stop joking.”

“……You are soooo boring, Clo.”

“Thank you for your compliments.”

Xavier's funeral is uncomfortably normal for him. No trace of any explosion even when Lyte slamming his fist hard on the coffin, teeth gritting in anger. Vinyl silently putting a hand on his shoulder. Clover noticed familiar violin melody from the speaker and the dark figure standing afar. She bit her lower lip, trying to ease the suffocating sensation from her lung by focusing on the pain. The last dusk of this year slowly slipping though the tombstone, stopped thirty centimeters before her shoes, gradually fading into dark blue ashes. 

Undeniable sadness finally bursted from Clover's heart.


End file.
